A patient having an implantable medical device (IMD) to monitor physiological conditions or provide therapies is often medicated for treating the same or other medical conditions. As is often the case, patients may take a variety of medications, which may have varying interactions and may impact the physiological response to the operation and functional parameters of the IMD or on physiological signals being monitored by the IMD.
The compliance of patients in following a drug regimen is often uncertain. The occurrence of symptoms or side effects related to a particular drug or a medical condition being treated by the drug may be poorly documented. Drug dispensing systems with alert features to monitor and manage the administration of medication have been proposed. For example, a medication dispenser including a medication alert signal provided in accordance with a desired medication regimen is generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,125 issued to Martindale, et al.
Communication technology applied in implantable medical device systems allow remote patient management in that a clinician may monitor data acquired by an IMD as well as program IMD operating parameters from a significant distance. Remote patient management is likely to be come more prevalent as technology to enable safe remote patient care emerges.